Socialogy-old

1. Upendra Class Notes
2. Aditya Mongra Printed Notes– Available on his Fb - Page(https://www.facebook.com/groups/838734936170059/)
3. Vikash Ranjan Book ( Fundamentals of sociology)
4. Haralambos(small one) – Also called Haralambos and Heald.
5. Haralambos(new one) – Only initial chapter 2,3 need new one exclusively.
6. IGNOU BA material
7. Ritzer –
8. NCERT 11th to 12th Std. Sociology Book
9. Y. Singh – Social tradition in India

For each chapter two to three books or sources are required as each chapter has many topics and one particular source won’t cover all the topics or even if covered it may not be very good. So,out of the sources mentioned you can figure out which one explains which topic in best way and read from it .Don’t try to read one topic from multiple resources until they have something extra or you lack clarity. Other reason for telling more resources is that you might not have all the resources and you can refer to the ones which are available.

1. Mahapatra Notes
2. Sindhuri Mam Notes
3. Applied Sociology (Vikash Ranjan)
4. IGNOU MA material
5. Aditya Mongra Notes – Fb Page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/838734936170059/)
6. Also read any Newspaper, EPW, Yojana periodically for case studies and contemporary examples
7. In addition to this , read Veena Das Essays, Ram Ahuja, B.K Nagla, Nadeem Hussain

If you can join coaching it is good since subject is technical and needs some help. If you cannot join, there are no issues with some initial efforts you will start getting info on the things.

1. Learn the syllabus, topics and sub-topics .It helps a lot in making linkages.
2. Once you complete a chapter, please do write answers to some last year questions and get them evaluated.
3. Once you complete the syllabus, then do join a test series.
4. In sociology first and foremost thing is knowledge and without it nothing will happen. Second is using knowledge in context of question and third is structuring your answer properly (Introduction – Critical Analysis – Conclusion) if the question demands.
5. Do not mind linking paper 1 with contemporary examples. This will help in enriching answers
6. In Paper -2 try to link theory and examples in your answers. Also you can use paper -1 thinkers.
7. For GS type questions like MNREGA, you need to relate it to topics of the syllabus. MNREGA is linked with rural transformation, poverty, women upliftment, migration, social change/development, environmental change, rural development, rural labour etc. You can easily frame your answers once you know how it links to the syllabus. Try to write some social reports/analysis on MNREGA or some perspective if you can give. ( eg- Role of state in social development , Policy as a tool of social change etc.)
8. The only way to improve answer writing is to have required knowledge and then its presentation. This will happen when you are well versed with complete syllabus. Do self evaluation and evaluation by teachers/friends. This helps in knowing where you are missing and accordingly you can improve.
9. Writing style is pivotal in getting good scores by writing nice answers. For sociology, the key is to keep the language simple and bountiful. Which means you should use extensively views of thinkers, case studies, book’s names etc. Unlike a subject like Pub Ad, where you can express your views liberally, in sociology you should use the views and opinions of thinkers and sociologists. This, makes the answers credible and scoring. You should not add case studies for the sake of adding unless they are relevant to the answer.

We will see in the following examples what mistakes are generally done by candidates in the use of case studies.

Example (1): Explain the traditional power structure in rural India. Discuss the factors that have contributed to its changing pattern in recent years.

General Answer: The abolition of privileges and economic rights of the intermediaries like the Zamindars and feudal has though not succeeded in introducing an egalitarian class-structure in villages, yet it has made a great social psychological impact on ex-tenant groups and motivates them now for competition with traditional power groups for access to positions of power and social status. Village leadership has now increasingly become more conciliatory and pragmatic in orientation. With the traditional bases of power for the older village elite having been removed, the leadership, which is now emerging, has to reconcile with factions and opposite interest groups to stay in power.

In order to be effective, leaders now have to be pragmatic; exercise contract through informal relations and integrate bureaucratic innovations.

Comment: A very impressive introduction but still there is no mention of decentralistion process and empowerment of women. This addition will make it highly impressive.

• Now candidates give plenty of studies to prove it.

Orenstein reports that informal leaders are more effective in the village he studied (a village in Bombay) than formal leaders.

Alan Beals found the village leadership in Namhalli (Mysore) faction-ridden and villagers prone to rely on a leader who had the capacity of successful action. Factional basis leadership also seems to be the case in the village of Morsalli in Banglore district studied by William Mc Cormack.

R. Bachenheimer finds in the Andhra village Padu, that leadership is in the hand of economically dominant families within each caste and wealth plus high caste status determine leadership.

Edward and L.G. harper find the continuity of traditional form of leadership in village Totagadde in Karnataka.

According to Oscar Lewis traditional dominant Jats hold leadership in Rampur village in North India. He observes four characteristics of Jat leadership:

• (a) the tendency to minimize the status difference between the leader and the led within the caste,
• (b) resistance to delegate the authority to leaders permanently without consultation with the appropriate faction,
• (c) Complete absence of youth leadership,
• (d) Lack of direct note of women in leadership.

This pattern may not be typical of all northern villages.

According to a survey conducted by Planning Commission, the structure of rural leadership seems still dominated by rich and upper caste groups but there is a tendency towards recruitment of younger members to the leadership role in villages and a majority of leaders are literate.

Change in economic field also led to a change in leadership. It was proved by F.G. Bailey in his study of Bisipara village. Bailey found that Boad and Ganjam distillers left their traditional work and village and went to the town for better employment. They improved their economic strength and after returning back to their village, showed interest in leadership.

Andre Beteille, in Sripuram village, found that there has been a change in the power structure of village without the traditional land-owning groups having lost their land to any substantial extent. He observes that today political power, whether in the village or outside it, is not as closely tied to ownership of land as it was in past. New bases of power have emerged which are, to some extent, independent of both caste and class. Perhaps most important among these is the strength of numerical power.

The findings of Beteille shows an instance of regional variation. In this context, an evaluation of twelve villages of India from different regions by B.S. Cohn is very conclusive. In six villages land control also compensates for lack of numerical dominance.

Conclusion: Generally speaking, there has been a break in the centripetal world view of castes and classes in most villages in India. A great level of change has come as a result of politicization of villages through the contemporary political reforms. It has also been motivated by community development schemes which now cover almost all the villages in India.

Comment: Case studies have been very beautifully presented and simultaneously there is no proper analysis. The complete answer is full of studies but is not looking focused, because the facts have not been analysed appropriately. Sometimes it seems as if some contradictory statements have been given. So, do tell and discuss the right causes responsible for the faction (if you are so talking about) in villages and also how they are supporting to change the power-structure.

1. Give greater emphasis on 73rd Amendment Act.
2. Discuss the reservations given to SC/ST, women and backward class.
3. How did it bring changes in power-structure, corroborate with a few studies(one or two)
4. Discuss different programmes for the upliftment of poor sections and women empowerment/emphasis on female participation in politics/impact of women’s Reservation Bill.
5. After giving all studies in a paragraph, discuss mainly about empowerment, democratic decentralization, mass participation in administration, awareness among people, etc.
6. More than a decade have gone after the implementation of Panchayati Raj, we have enormous studies on it, place a few of them rightly.
7. Give the views of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.
8. Give the opinion of World Bank in the very age of Globalisation in this context.

Generally candidates do not mention about Panchayati Raj because they think there is no substantial impact of it on masses.

Your View point: Do tell that the level of changes is not upto the mark, why? Corroborate it by studies, but keep telling that the change is taking place-though dimensions are varying, like, there is caste-based faction, Dalit consciousness has increased –Reason? The influence of Dalit leaders at rural level (Politicisation of power in the name of Dalit Class) etc.

• After such analysis, give a powerful conclusion.

Example (2): Joint family is dissociating into nuclear family. Analyse the statement.

General Answer: Definition of joint family- Its characteristics/Definition of nuclear family-its characteristics/Nuclear Families in two different sovietise (In western countries and in India’s poor Dalit class)-externally both look alike but internally they are quite different. Nuclear family has been defined on the basis of western country’s structure and so that is the real nuclear family. In western countries, nuclear family is a part of their system while that of in India is due to economic crunch situation.

Now, in India, it is no more limited upto lower caste poor people but has been institutionalized universally. Many sociologists have analysed it and0 have admitted not only its disintegration but also attempted to give the factors responsible for this disintegration. In this regard, they told one more important thing that in western countries that separation was both physical and mental while in India it was only physical. People in India are always mentally joint. This is the finding of I.P Desai which was later on approved by K.M. Kapadia.

Comment: Introduction of the answer is excellent but there is one thing lacking here. The analysis of physical and mental separation should be socio-psychological ie, there should be stress on socialization process. Discuss briefly the socialization-pattern of both the countries and its impact on the child being socialized as to why at one place he becomes emotionless while at the other place he is emotionally attached to his family members.

Now candidates describe so many case studies like the analysis and conclusion of I.P Desai/ the analysis and conclusion of K.M. Kapadia / the opinion poll conducted by Indian Institute of Public opinion – conclusion/ study of Delhi’s Agrawal families by M.S. Gore – Conclusion/ the study, analysis and conclusion of P.M. Kolenda, apart from it, three main causes for integration – divorce and remarriage, payment of bride wealth and dowry and uxori laterality vs. virilaterality study and analysis of Banglore by Aileen Ross, etc.

Then candidates write the conclusion that the outcome of all these studies is that the joint family is disintegrating into nuclear family. Though the direction of change is unlike western countries but still the smaller form of family is universal phenomena.

1. The aim of most of the sociologists is to find the percentage of jointness and nuclearity in the concerned society. Their studies and conclusions are mostly alike. So try to give them in one or two paragraphs.
2. Among all these studies, the study of Ross is very important. Because she has focused on those issues which are useful for even today’s families and in which the issue of children’s freedom is most important.
3. Discuss the impact of different Acts or laws related to family or marriage ie, the impact in thinking process, behaviour, freedom of children and also its negative impact.
4. Impact of Globalisation, Privatisation and liberalization on society, also the impact of Panchayati Raj, etc.
5. The impact of communication system and media on society and so on family system – Awareness level of people has tremendously raised, it paved the way to understand and analyse the world and in this way a complete change in their world-view.
6. Empowerment emancipated women – their decision making capacity increased – they can no more carry the traditional Purdah system – consequences of all these – in the form of a big generation-gap and that leads to change in family-system.
7. Lastly give an emphatic conclusion.

Any topic which is to be studied, should not be studied straight-forword but rather should be broken in different possible dimensions having any kind of connection with the topic in answer writing, select related dimensions according to the nature of the question. This technique will help you complete your answer. An illustration of this technique is given as follows:

• (a) Meaning of MOP - Its two aspects : (i) Material (Forces of Production) (ii) Social (Relations of Production)
• (b) Concept of substructure (Economic structure) and infrastructure/superstructure.
• (c) Changing form of MOP - A special characteristic.
• (d) Change in MOP - Beginning of a new age (Primitive communism-Ancient-feudal - Capitalistic)
• (e) In capitalism : ‘Class-in-itself’ changes into ‘class-for-itself’ : full consciousness
• (f) Emergence of communism - A new MOP where change stops.

• (i) Bourgeoisie
• (ii) Proletariat

• (a) Automation and Problem of unemployment among workers.
• (b) Overproduction and end of Petty Bourgeoisie.

• (a) Meaning of Alienation
• (b)Meaning - elaboration
  • (i) Economic aspect
  • (ii) Social aspect
• (c) Dominance of Specializaion - Alienation at its zenith.
• (d) Religious explanation of Alienation
• (e) Relevancy of Alienation
• (f) Criticism

• (a) Meaning of ‘class-in-itself’
• (b) ‘Class-in-itself’ : Objective Reality
• (c) Position of labourers -from slaves of Ancient age till alienated Proletariat of capitalistic age - ‘class-in-itself’
• (d) ‘Class-for-itself’ : Subjective perception
• (e) Polarisation of two classes and role of Petty Bourgeoisie responsible for change of class-in-itself into class-for-itself - A situation of full consciousness of Proletariat

• (a) Functionalist:
  • (i) Parsons
  • (ii) Davis & Moore
  • (iii) M.M. Tumin
  • (iv) Eva Rosenfeld
  • (v) Michael Young
• (b) Conflict theorists:
  • (i) Max Weber
  • (ii) Ralf Dahrendorf

Believe in only one thing – revision. In this exam the problem is that we read a lot but we don’t assimilate it or recollect it properly during exam times and write a layman kind of answer. You need to show that you know more and this can only happen by making concise notes and repeated revision of the notes. Also you need to grasp relevant things from newspapers and magazines. Having a look at previous year question papers helps in getting an idea about the kind of questions that one can expect in this exam. Considering previous year question papers is an important part of one’s preparation.